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gnatsaredancing t1_j2176x8 wrote

House of leaves. Never have I seen so much unrealised potential. The house is fascinating and by extension the Navidson records but I couldn't give a toss about Johnny, his mom or anything else the book did besides the house.

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Maximum_Poet_8661 t1_j222kuq wrote

Reading that book was an ADHD nightmare for me, the footnotes thing is cool in concept but in execution it might have been the most distracting reading experience I’ve ever had, I could not focus enough to finish it

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Icy-Ad2082 t1_j222l3u wrote

I gotta defend this one a bit. I think most people find the Johnny Truant parts of the book to be a slog, but it’s what makes the pacing effective. I couldn’t read this book quickly, I would read a Johnny Section, a house section, and take a break. Yeah, part of me would like to see more happen in the house, and it takes a bit to get really wild. Whenever I describe the book to someone I think would like it, I never give much away about the house, just that “this family is making some renovations to a house and they discover that the house is a tiny bit bigger on the inside than the outside. That’s all I can tell you.” But it’s part of the story that we can’t really have a satisfying answer about the house, it’s an ongoing endeavor. Spending more time their or writing exciting parts that don’t really serve a purpose beyond being exciting would only serve to piss readers off at the ending when we don’t get a satisfying answer about the nature of the house. It woulda been “lost” in book form. But I agree it can be a slog.

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gnatsaredancing t1_j22vpkc wrote

I get that completely. It's just that Johnny is an insufferable character. His arc is not just uninteresting, it's so grating that it feels designed to get you to toss the book in a fire.

So it doesn't serve it's purpose at all. It's not a pacing device. It's a killing device. It killed any interest I had in the book.

And even without Johnny, the Navidson records didn't go anywhere. It just sort of set up an interesting premise and left it largely unresolved. Leaving the book with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Tons of potential, entirely unrealised.

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ragazza68 t1_j2agliq wrote

Thank you!! That book makes me actively hostile, and I had high hopes for it.

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